1. Field of the Invention
The invention pertains to the mounting of tanks containing liquid fuels or the like on vessels such as sailboats, yachts, motorboats, cabin cruisers, tugboats and the like. The storage of volatile-flammables such as propane, butane, gasoline, etc., presents a serious problem to yachtsmen and other operators of smaller to medium-sized vessels or boats. Storage of these gases or fuels should be as far aft on a boat as is conveniently possible, and should be located on or in a completely open area so that any discharge or fumes will not be collected or concentrated on or below decks or in closed compartments where a spark could ignite the fumes or vapors, which could seriously damage a boat or injure its occupants. In addition, the salt spray environment causes rapid deterioration of most metals, which is enhanced in closed-compartment storage where water vapor can accumulate and circulate.
Direct on-deck mounting of tanks is undesirable because of the deposition of rust stains on the deck and also because the decks of small craft such as a sailboat are usually awash with sea water, thus the tank bottoms are immersed partially or periodically in salty sea water while sailing.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Numerous prior art references disclose relatively complex racks for holding tanks such as propane gas bottles. U.S. Pat. No. 2,985,310 discloses a gas bottle rack having a base plate with front and rear flanges that are cut away to nestingly receive the lower necks of gas bottles. The upper necks of the gas bottles are embraced by a pair of clamp bars which are secured to the baseplate by a hold down rod. U.S. Pat. No. 2,639,208 discloses a gas bottle rack for trailers having a base plate to which is rigidly secured spaced annular upstanding ring members attached to receive the annular bottom flanges of conventional gas bottles. An upstanding member, positioned between the ring members, supports a flanged top cover member overlying the bottle neck portions. Locking means holds the cover member to the upstanding member to retain the gas bottles on the horizontal plate.